


Saviour [ON HOLD]

by soldier_of_ice



Category: Mystic Force - Fandom, Mystic Force Power Rangers, Power Rangers, Power Rangers Mystic Force
Genre: F/M, alternate realm, i don't know what you consider to be graphic violence but for now i haven't tagged it as graphic, or one town whatever, secrecy, two Power Ranger teams in one world
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-14
Updated: 2017-04-19
Packaged: 2018-10-18 12:51:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10617276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soldier_of_ice/pseuds/soldier_of_ice
Summary: When a new Power Ranger team falls through a portal from their world into Briarwood with a mission, Nick and his team are suspicious. The new Red Ranger isn't the friendliest or most cooperative of people, and her team seems to be hiding something.Exactly who are they and what do they want in this world?





	1. Hetar - 2017

DUST ROSE INTO THE AIR LIKE A STORM, stirred up by running feet and hasty stops. Destruction ate away at the very ground itself like a deadly plague, clawing away chunks of the ground into a void of darkness, and tearing down stone walls around the figure clad in all red standing in the middle of once-grand building.

Underneath a gleaming red helmet, her steel grey eyes flashed as she slashed a monster in half diagonally. Adrenaline rushed through her veins, but she resisted giving into its reckless grip, whirling around as a man cried out.

“Max!” She yelled, her gaze locking on the Blue Ranger struggling against another monster feet behind her. The monster was pushing him closer and closer to a cliff that either dropped into a deep ravine, or into nothing. Either way, he would die if he fell.

At the sound of her voice, the monster shoved the Blue Ranger so hard he stumbled backwards, his foot slipping over the edge.

The Red Ranger threw herself forward, tossing a knife at the creature that caught it in it’s heart, or the space where a heart would have gone, and it crumbled to dust. She caught the Blue Ranger’s hand right as he lost his grip, having fallen and catching the edge of the cliff with his fingertips. With a grunt of effort, she inched backwards, slowly but surely pulling him up and over the side to safety.

“We need to go! The portal won’t remain open for much longer!” He gasped, and she could only manage a breathless nod. She grabbed his offered hand, struggling to a standing position as he helped her up.

“We need to make sure everyone’s accounted for first,” she breathed out, grimacing at the pain in her side.

“I helped them through,” he replied, frowning underneath his blue helmet as he saw her wince. “Nikki?”

She waved a hand to dismiss the concern in his voice. “I’m fine. What about Uli? Is he coming?”

The Blue Ranger shook his head. “No. He said he could help more by staying here to see if he could slow the curse.”

She nodded briefly, her head turning as she surveyed the damage with a grim expression. “Very well. Let’s hope he was right about this,” she added softly, more to herself than to her companion.

“We’re going to find a way to save Hetar.” He said, taking her hand. He hated that she blamed herself for this invasion. If anything, this invasion was _all_ of the team’s fault, and he knew they would agree with that.

They still couldn’t convince Nikki of that, however. She was completely convinced it was her fault, and her fault alone, that this world was dying and they had been forced to open a portal to another realm in the already-fragile fabric of reality of Hetar.

As the Red Ranger, the leader of the most powerful and elite guardian force in this world, the Mystic Force Power Rangers, she shouldered the weight of the team’s decisions and results — and their mistakes.

Max could still remember the day she had been selected by the Red Mystic Ranger Morpher to be a Power Ranger, and how reluctant she had been to accept — it took two days of convincing by Max before she’d given in. Before that fateful day, she had been more relaxed, more carefree, an ordinary village girl who had a regular life. She had had only normal worries — high school, boy troubles, and high school girl drama.

And now? She led the most powerful force for good in this universe. She was legendary — they all were — praised and honored when they defeated evil, but this role also meant that she took the blame and fall for the team’s mistakes, slip ups, and failures.

Nikki was silent in response, grateful for the visor on her helmet that hid the tears in her eyes.

She squeezed his hand briefly with a small nod, and they turned and walked through the portal together, and as they did so, her chin rose in defiance and determination.

If the Master thought he could destroy their world because they were seemingly turning their backs on it, he was dead wrong.

Nicolette Maria Russell would do anything, even the impossible, to save this world, and that was exactly what she was planning to do.

The impossible.


	2. New Arrivals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A group of strangers stumble across the Hetar Rangers, and decide to help them.
> 
> Nikki's gut tells her not to trust them or their leader, a mysterious dark-haired man who is just as suspicious of her.

“Where the bloody hell are we?”

The voice came from a woman clad in yellow armor, though she had taken off her helmet to reveal fiery red hair and bright blue eyes set in a young, but experienced, face. She looked around, eyes narrowed in confusion.

“Wherever we need to be,” Nikki answered grimly. She kept her helmet on, though her visor had unshielded. Her steel grey eyes searched their surroundings curiously, and a bit apprehensively. “That portal should have sent us to the magic object — or person — powerful enough to help us.” She tapped her bracelet, which also doubled as the Power Ranger Morpher that allowed her to transform into the Red Ranger, twice in rapid succession, and her Ranger uniform melted away.

“Yeah, well, what universe or planet is this? And what exactly is this object or person?” Cameron, the Yellow Ranger, questioned again, also demorphing as her teammates did the same. While she and Alexandrine, the Green Ranger, wore bracelet Morphers that were nearly identical to Nikki’s except for the color, Maxence and Victor, the Orange Ranger whose uniform color was actually a mix between orange and pink, had opted for metal key Morphers that always reappeared in their pockets no matter what.

“That’s exactly what I’m wondering,” Maxence agreed darkly, obviously highly suspicious of wherever they had landed.

“A better question is who exactly are _you?_ ” A young male voice rang out, causing the Rangers to turn in the direction it came from in surprise and defensiveness.

The speaker was a young man who couldn’t have been more than 21. He was dressed in leather and black pants, clearly a uniform of some sort, complete with a black cloak. Four other young men and women fanned out in an arrowhead formation behind him, their faces stern as they surveyed the newcomers.

Nikki stepped forward instinctively, her own team spreading out on either side of her, level with her, to form a line. “Travelers in need of help.” She answered shortly, her eyes flickering over the potential new enemies. “Where are we?”

Instinct and years of survival warned her to hold back their mission and the fact that they were from a different universe. Whoever these people were, they looked dangerous, and she didn’t like them at all, nor did she intend to trust them.

“These woods are dangerous, and never get visitors from the direction you came.” He stated plainly, and Nikki tensed slightly at the implement in his words. “Who are you really?”

Her gaze hardened for a fraction of a second, dangerously cold, before she held up her hands, feigning innocence. “We were simply taking a walk, and got lost. We’re just visitors to this part of the wo– country.” She cursed her near slip-up silently. “We need help getting to the nearest town. Please?”

She offered a small, hopeful smile, almost shyly. The man stared at with hard eyes, and she sensed that he hadn’t missed her swift change of word choice.

He was good.

Which made him even more dangerous.

After another minute, he nodded curtly. “Yeah. It’s not that far.” His tone was marginally warmer, and she smiled brightly, turning on her heel to direct that smile at her team, though it never reached her eyes, which held a silent warning.

“See, I _told_ you we would find someone to help us! Plus, it’s a whole group of people!” Her voice was overly happy, and her team stared at her, slightly wide-eyed.

Her eyes flashed. _Play along with it, and follow my lead. Don’t trust them._ She hoped they understood her silent warning. Max met her eyes, reading the message there, and understanding passed between them.

“Well, seeing as you got us lost in the first place, I’m glad!” He complained loudly, giving her an exasperated look for effect.

She sighed in relief silently, before rolling her eyes. “Oh, be quiet. You were _begging_ to go on a hike, William.” She noted the confusion flickering over Maxence’s face before he understood — she didn’t want the other group knowing their real names. Names had power. Nikki turned back to the other group, smiling again as she stepped forward. “Thank you so much, by the way! I’m Alison.” She held out her hand to the new man she’d just been conversing with.

He shook it briefly. “Nick. These are my te– friends.”

She noted his mistake quickly, and as their eyes met, she saw that he knew it.

Nikki kept her fake smile plastered on, though it felt unfamiliar and uncomfortable to smile so long and so much. She hadn’t smiled like this, _genuinely_ smiled like this, since she took on the responsibilities of being a Ranger… Her heart seemed to sink beneath her resignation and loneliness just a bit more, before she brushed it away.

Now was no time to pity herself. She could do that when she and the others had saved Hetar.

“I’m Charlie! My friends call me Chip.” A curly-haired redhead introduced himself enthusiastically, holding out his hand to Nikki, who shook his hand next.

“Nice to meet you. Thank you so much!” She added to him, and he shot her a flirtatious grin, to which she responded with her own, slightly shy grin.

“Any time!” He chuckled, but Nick shot him a sharp look.

“Knock it off, Chip. All we’re doing is escorting them into town.” He said shortly, and Chip frowned at him, unsure why Nick seemed so tense. What was so wrong about being friendly?

“Alanna!” Nikki called back to Cameron, turning around to walk backwards waving at her teammate with a cheery grin. “C’mere! Get that lot up here as well!”

“Alanna”, or Cameron, gave Nikki a look the female Red Ranger couldn’t quite discern that lasted only a second before she turned to the others. “C’mon then!”

They all quickly caught up to Nikki, who was walking along in the midst of the other team, and joined her. Max made his way to her side, slipping his hand into hers to make his proximity to her less suspicious. “I don’t like this,” he muttered to her under his breath.

“You don’t have to,” she snapped just as quietly.

She sensed they were being watched, and glanced up ahead of her to see Nick had turned, his gaze focused on her and Max before he met her eyes, and turned back around.

She pulled her hand from Max’s, hurrying up to keep pace at Nick’s side.

“So, you’re local?” She questioned, shooting him a smile that seemed more genuine, not as overly bright as her last one.

He shrugged. “You could say that. My… friends are, but I’m only here to visit my sister for a little while.” He hesitated at the word “friends”, almost as though he wasn’t use to saying it.

“That seems like fun,” she replied. At the mention of family, she couldn’t help thinking of own. Her brother had gone missing a while back, and even after she became a Ranger, she had never found him. Her heart tightened a little, but there was no outward sign. “So, how long have you stayed so far?”

“I don’t know… Maybe close to a year? It’s been a while.” He looked over at her, his golden eyes piercing her own. “How exactly did you get lost again?”

Nikki thought she detected a hint of suspicion.

“Well, William back there” — she gestured behind her to Max — “was begging us to go on a hike. We’ve been traveling kind of aimlessly, so I didn’t see any reason why we couldn’t. That was several hours ago, after he led us off trail and we got lost.” She laughed a little, but Nick didn’t seem to think anything was amusing.

“Where are you traveling from?” He asked, pressing her for more information.

“Well, nowhere in particular, you know? We’ve just been drifting from town to town for a while now,” she waved her hand carelessly, as if to illustrate her point.

They arrived at the edge of the forest, which opened onto a road. On the other side of the road lay shops and various buildings, and tourists and locals browsing the window displays. Nick turned to her as their groups followed them out onto the narrow grassy stretch between the edge of the forest and the road.

“This is Briarwood.” For the first time since their meeting, a faint smile touched his lips. “Enjoy your stay.” The smile didn’t reach his eyes, which seemed to warn her not to cause any trouble in his town, otherwise she’d regret it. She could respect the fire in him, she supposed, leader to leader.

Their teams seemed to be oblivious, but Nick and Nikki recognized the other as far more than what they seemed. A look of understanding passed between the leaders, who had more in common than they would have ever guessed, and a moment passed before Nikki forced a smile, turning to her group.

“Thank you!” She said to the other group with a big smile, before smiling at her own group. “Right, I’m hungry after that little excursion. Let’s go.”

She crossed the road with her team, laughing and chatting away with them, turning back once to wave goodbye at the other group, her eyes sliding easily over Nick as though nothing had passed between them, before she led her group down the sidewalk until they turned a corner and were out of sight.

The entire time, she was acutely of the hard gaze following them.

They would have to be extra careful now, with the possibility of contending with the guardians of whatever they were seeking now hanging over their heads.


	3. Secrets and Suspicions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nikki and the other Rangers decide to split up to figure out where they are, but during her exploration, she runs into none other than Nick again.

“Are you sure?” 

Max’s concern caused Nikki to flash a certain look at him as she nodded. “We have to be able to blend in, Max. The only way to do that right now is to use our powers.”

“Nikki,” Cameron broke in, her expression reflecting Max’s, though maybe even with a little bit of challenge, “isn’t this an abuse of our powers? Creating money out of thin air?”

Nikki switched her gaze from Max to Cam, and the hidden challenge in the Yellow Ranger’s gaze, and even words, did not escape her. Nikki may have understood why Cam and Rina didn’t fully like her still, but that didn’t mean she would accept their challenges. 

After leaving Nick and the other group at the edge of the woods, Nikki had made sure to keep up pretenses until they turned a corner or two and confirmed that they weren’t being followed by doubling back alone, then she had quickly found a dark, narrow alleyway squeezed between two run-down buildings that hid her and the team. She knew that they already stuck out, especially to the wrong people, and they needed to start blending in before they attracted other, potentially hostile, eyes. That, unfortunately, included creating money out of thin air, but without it, they had no way to get to food or other resources they needed to have while stuck on this new planet, in a universe that was quite possibly completely different from theirs.

“No.” Nikki almost bit off the word, meeting Cam’s questioning stare firmly. The Yellow Ranger held the stare evenly, but it almost seemed to waver after a minute. “This constitutes as an emergency, and we’re allowed to use our powers in whatever way we have to in an emergency.”

Silence reigned over her teammates, as they simply stared at her, wanting to question her more but afraid that she would get angry if they did so. 

They had learned a long time ago, pretty quickly, that only a fool would deliberately get on her bad side.

Nikki sighed softly, her gaze once more swiftly searching their dirty, dark surroundings, before she continued. “If I had any choice, I wouldn’t be asking all of you to do this. You know very well that this goes against my nature, too, but what good will this magical person or thing do if we’re all too weak from starvation and cold to get it, or them, back to Hetar?”

Victor and Rina nodded, acknowledging her point, but Max and Cam still gave her hard stares. 

“Alright. Before we do anything else, we need to search the town.” She continued, her eyes flitting over the other four Rangers. “We should split up, and explore, just to get an idea of where we are and see if we can discover what we might be up against.” 

Rina frowned in confusion. “Up against?” Her green eyes locked onto Nikki’s.

Nikki nodded. “That group we met? I don’t like them.” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Max’s expression go from confusion as well to understanding in a flash. He knew exactly what she meant. “They seemed… Off, to me.”

“But they seemed perfectly normal,” Victor replied, his dark brown eyes narrowing in confusion.

“Nick was — is — suspicious of us.” She said flatly. “He wasn’t fooled for a second by our lies. And he’ll be watching our every move,” she added. “Don’t ask me how I know, I could just tell from his actions. I also don’t think he or that group are just simply ‘locals’.”

“Who do you think they are?” Max asked slowly, and she could almost see his brain at work as he tried to figure out the answer to his own question.

“I don’t know, but I intend to find out. Especially if they interfere with our mission,” she added grimly, her expression darkening. There was silence as she let that statement hang over her team for a minute, each of them becoming lost in their own thoughts as they worked out the meaning of her words, before she spoke again. “We should split up. All in favor?”

The entire team nodded in agreement. 

“Vic and I can team up,” Cam offered. Victor nodded in agreement, and Max looked at Nikki, clearly wanting to go with her.

Before he could say anything, Rina piped up. “Max and I can together as well.” She turned to Nikki, frowning a little. “That leaves just you, Nikki. You could join one of the teams…?” 

Nikki simply shook her head. “I can work better by myself this time,” she responded. “We can meet back here in two hours, as long as nothing happens?” When everyone nodded, she added, “Everyone have their Morphers?” They all nodded again. “Good. Max and Rina, go south. Cam and Vic, go west. I can go east.”

After they exchanged brief goodbyes, the teams headed off in different directions. Nikki watched them go, half hoping and half knowing they would be safe. They were experienced fighters at this point even without their Ranger powers; they could easily take care of themselves. Still, she worried over her team’s safety.

She watched until they were all gone before slipping her bracelet off. In the center gleamed a small, bright ruby. She tapped it, concentrating on what form she needed her Morpher to take, and it quickly changed forms. In her hand now laid a phone. 

She quickly punched a set of numbers that could reach Uli’s Morpher, and held baited breath as she waited for his voice to answer the call. An eternity seemed to pass as silence met her ears, and she cursed when the call disconnected.

She took a deep breath, forcing herself to stay calm even as panic seemed to flood her body. There were only a few reasons Uli wouldn’t be picking up… His Morpher had somehow, impossibly, been destroyed… Stolen… Or… No, she couldn’t think about that.

He wasn’t dead. He  _ couldn’t _ be.

She tried again, with the same result. She took another deep breath, slipping the phone into her pocket after deciding to keep it as a phone in case any of her team mates needed to reach her, before containing her emotions behind a mask of calm. She stepped out of the alleyway, and tracked the way Max and Rina went with her memory. They had gone west… 

Nikki had barely turned and set foot onto the sidewalk when she nearly crashed into someone. She stumbled backwards a few steps, trying to regain her balance, only to have a man’s hands grasp her wrists to catch and steady her.

“Allison?”

She looked up, her eyes widening at the sound of the fake name she’d given earlier. Nick stared at her, evidently just as surprised to have run into her as she was. “Nick?”

She quickly flashed him a smile, throwing up her pretense again. “Oh my gosh, I’m  _ so _ sorry! I’m such a clumsy person.”

“It’s fine.” He shook his head to dismiss her apology, his golden eyes locked onto hers. “You okay?”

She smiled again. “Yeah, I think so.” She noted that he was still holding her wrists, evidently distracted. But by what? She wondered internally, as he continued to stare at her.

She cleared her throat, a little awkwardly, hoping she seemed shy enough. “Nick?”

His name seemed to shake him out of a reverie, and he glanced down at his grip. “Oh. Sorry.” He released her, stepping back.

She smiled shyly again, glancing away briefly as if embarrassed. “No, it’s fine.”

There was a pause between them that was full of genuine awkwardness.

Nick glanced around, his brow furrowing a little. “Where are your friends?” He questioned, noting their absence before his gaze found Nikki — or Allison’s — again.

She shrugged as if to say it wasn’t that important. “We all split up. They wanted to go see other parts of town. I wasn’t interested.”

He nodded, and it seemed that he believed her explanation. She sighed silently in relief.

“What about your friends?” She asked with a smile.

“Working. Well, three of them are. The other is pretending to ‘supervise’ them.” He stated with an amused tone, causing Nikki to laugh.

She gave him yet another smile, though this one was softer and almost unsure, as she waited for him to break this new silence first. She wasn’t quite sure what to say at this point.

“How long are you and your friends staying?” He suddenly asked, taking her aback, and her surprise showed, flickering onto her face.

“We don’t really know,” she answered slowly, her eyes searching his as she looked for any hint of suspicion towards her. “We hadn’t really planned how long yet, you know?” She forced another smile, but she was suspicious of his motives. “I guess just until we want to move on.”

She nearly missed how his eyes hardened at her words, which could be, and clearly had been, taken as a challenge. It was almost as if she were taunting him silently that she could whatever she wanted in his town, and he couldn’t stop her.

He paused, simply looking at her, and for a split second, Nikki felt almost uncomfortable underneath his scrutinizing gaze. After a moment, he finally offered a faint smile, and spoke. “Since you’re staying for a little while it seems, why don’t I take you on a tour sometime? Just to help you know where you are, and find all the best spots only locals really know. Completely free.”

There was  _ definitely _ an ulterior motive, and Nikki knew it with absolute, dark certainty. No leader, or person in charge, in his or her right mind would simply offer to take a potential new enemy on a completely free guide of their town, and basically give them an insider’s knowledge that could easily be used to defeat them, without having some sort of motive that trumped keeping their potential enemy at a disadvantage of not knowing the terrain.

Besides, if that wasn’t completely foolproof reasoning, nothing in life — nothing  _ good _ — came free. She knew that all too well.  


“That sounds wonderful!” She exclaimed, her expression brightening. “Thank you, Nick.” 

“I’m happy to help you,” he replied, though both of them knew that was a lie. He simply want to get close to her, and she suspected why. At least, partly suspected why.

She smiled once more. “Well, I have to go meet my friends, but it was good seeing you! And thank you for that offer! Once I figure out plans with my group, I can probably come find you. Where would be a good place to find you on short notice?”

“Rockporium. I work there most days. If you don’t see me, just ask Xander or Chip. They can find me.” He responded.

“Wonderful! Thanks again! Have a good day!” Nikki waved at him goodbye as she set off across the street, before turning back around and walking down the sidewalk.


End file.
